(This paper was for my English 102 project. The
theme of the class is Environmental Issues and for
the project we had to pick an environmental issue
that we are interested in and write a 5-7 page
paper about it arguing for or against it. I chose
grazing rights because I have grown up on a ranch
my whole life so I already knew a little about
it. I also chose it because I go to school at the
University of Nevada Reno and everyone in my class
does not know much (or anything) about ranching
even though they live in a ranching state.)

Stephanie Souza
Ms. Ryan
English 102, 4/3/07
Position Paper

Grazing Rights on Public Land

For decades ranchers across Nevada have been
fighting the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and
National Forest Service for grazing rights. One
of the most famous stories concerning this
nationwide issue is that of
Wayne Hage. He is not alone in the battle
against the BLM and National Forest Service; every
rancher is in the same battle in some way, shape,
or form. Since about 87% of Nevada’s land is
federally controlled, ranchers have to get grazing
permits from them every year. When grazing
permits are not granted ranches are put out of
business and that way of life is nearly
impossible. This has been a heated subject for
many decades now. There are many disagreements
between government officials and ranchers but
there is one thing I am sure they both agree on
and it is the fact that ranches are rapidly
disappearing. Unless America wants to lose its
most famous icons and western heritage, the
ranchers and government officials need to
compromise with one another.

Cowboys, Indians,
tumbleweeds and cows were the first thoughts that
come to most people’s minds when thinking of the
western United States. The picture is no longer so
clear due to the battle of mistrust and
misunderstanding between the ranchers and
environmentalists. Until the last couple of
decades cattle grazing on public lands in the West
has not been an issue between the different
segments of society. The two views are
contradictory but there is room for compromise.
The battle between these two views has rarely been
friendly, and has often been fierce (Jones).

Imagine driving for over two hours on a lonely
dirt road where the only sign of life is the
handful of scattered cows grazing quietly under
the vast Nevada sky swishing their tails back and
forth to keep the flies off their backs. You
notice that there are not many fences in the
valley but when you do come across a few you
notice they are weather worn and have been there
for at least half a century. Out the corner of
your eye you see a glimmer of something shiny that
you think might be a window to a house. You shake
the notion; you are over fifty miles from the
closest town. Who could possibly live all the way
out here? After you continue to drive for another
ten miles you notice a small ranch nestled against
the mountains. A jolt of excitement runs through
your body but quickly vanishes when you doubt
anybody lives there until you see a truck with a
trailer load of horses heading to the house,
leaving a trail of dust in its path. Relieved
that there is civilization way out here you pull
up to the ranch to ask for directions to a nearby
campsite. After chatting for a while, you learn
that the guy who lives there is Wayne Hage and for
a guy who lives over fifty miles from town, he has
had to deal with a lot.

After having a nice supper and swapping stories,
you are amazed to find out that Hage bought the
Pine Creek Ranch in June of 1978, and only two
months after the purchase he started getting
harassed by the Forest Service. The Forest
Service had dreams of starting a park or
wilderness area there but after he would not sell
the ranch to them. The fight was on.

Over the next decade the Forest Service made it
increasingly harder for him to run a livestock
operation, eventually running him out of
business. The Forest Service fenced off his
springs, took away grazing allotments for five
years, and confiscated all of his cattle and then
made him pay $39,000 for the cattle and $40,000
for the cost of impoundment, just to name a few.
They did those things “to increase the cost of
operation so much for Pine Creek Ranch, that Hage
would eventually be frozen out and they would get
the ranch by default” (Johnson).One could
say the Forest Service won because Hage’s income
dropped from $400,000 a year to only $6,900 a
year, making it nearly impossible to run a ranch,
let alone make a living.

“On September 26,
1991, Hage filed his ‘takings claim’ against the
Forest Service in the U.S. Court of Claims. The
suit alleged that the United States had taken
Hage’s livestock, grazing rights, and stock water
rights on rangelands” (Alden). There were three
phases to the case and a little over ten years
later on January 29, 2002, a final decision was
made on phase one; the ruling went in favor of
Hage. The trial date for the second phase was
May 3 – May 21, 2004. The court trials still
continue to this day.

The federal government owns approximately
one-third of the land in the U.S. and over half of
that land is located in the western states. Of
Nevada’s 110,540 square miles of land, 87% is
federally owned--more than any other western
state. The land is divided into six grazing
districts, which are: Elko, Winnemucca, Carson
City, Ely, Las Vegas, and Battle Mountain. Since
almost all the ranches use federal land, ranchers
must get grazing permits from the government.“A
grazing permit is an official written permission
to graze a specific number, kind and class of
livestock for a specified period on defined
federal rangeland, and must authorize all
livestock grazing on national forest system lands.
Permits are issued for ten years or less”
(Rangelands). To qualify for a grazing
permit on public land one must “own or control
private property that has been recognized as base
property. This typically happens when an existing
base property is sold or leased to a new
individual. After buying or leasing base
property, the new owner applies to the BLM for the
grazing permit attached to the property” (U.S
Department of the Interior).

When grazing permits are denied to ranchers for
periods of time, it puts them out of a job and a
way of life. Ranchers understand when government
agencies give appropriate reasons; however, when
the government takes away grazing permits because
they want to have control over the land, ranchers
get angry and fight back, just like Wayne Hage
did.

It is understandable that the land needs time to
recover from a fire but when the government puts a
restraint on the land for more than two years, it
affects a rancher. When a rancher cannot use the
land for that long he must find some place else to
run the cattle. That requires finding a ranch
that will take care of the herd, which includes
keeping an eye on the cows, moving them to new
grazing allotments when necessary, and doctoring
them when sick, etc. It is also a huge financial
problem. A rancher must be able to afford the
trucking fees, the fee of running the cattle on
the ranch, animal unit monthly (AUM) fees, and
brand inspection fees if traveling out of state.
One haul truck can carry forty-five cows or thirty
cow-calf pairs and it costs roughly $3.50 a mile.
It costs anywhere from $15-$20 a head to run a cow
on a ranch plus an additional $1.75 per AUM that
you have to pay the BLM. When transporting cattle
out of state, ranchers also have to pay a brand
inspection fee, which usually runs about $1 a
head. For a rancher, an average yearly net income
is about $15,603.
This fluctuates from year to year depending on
feed prices, price of cattle, weather, etc.
Ranchers who cannot afford these fees take out
loans.

When you move
cattle to a new ranch it takes a couple of years
for the cattle to get used to the land. Within
those first few years more cattle get sick and
fewer cows become pregnant.

Many environmentalists and other people think that
livestock grazing destroys native grasses,
riparian areas, and creek beds, and reduces the
number of wildlife. Those effects do occur but
only when the land is overgrazed and is not
managed properly. The most common cause of
overgrazing is too much livestock on a given area
of land. To prevent overgrazing, ranchers and
government officials oversee the land.

On a ranch there are designated spring, summer,
fall, and in some cases winter ranges on which the
cattle run throughout the year. When cows are
shipped into the ranch in the spring, they usually
reside in allotments located close to the ranch.
When summer rolls around the cows are pushed up
into the mountains where there is new feed and
plenty of water. In the fall when the weather
cools, the cows start to descend the mountain on
their own. The rest are gathered and put in the
same allotments as they were in the spring. On
most ranches calves are shipped off to sale, cows
and bulls are shipped off to a winter range on
another ranch that has a warmer climate, and
heifers remain on the ranch in feedlots to be fed
and taken care of when it is time to calve.

Every few weeks ranchers relocate the cows within
each allotment to prevent overgrazing and damage
to the land. So when it is time for the cows to
come off of the mountain there is plenty of feed
for them and the same allotment that was used in
the spring can be used again in the fall.

Having been born and raised on a cattle ranch, I
have experienced many hardships that do and do not
deal with the government. I have met and talked
with people that think today all cattle are raised
in huge feedlots
where the cattle’s “waste is untreated and
unsanitary. It bubbles with chemicals and disease
bearing organisms” (Boyan).While there are
huge feedlots throughout the United States, many
cattle are raised on family owned and operated
ranches. When cattle are properly run on open
land, “the positive impacts of progressive
livestock management consistently outweigh the
negative impacts that we occasionally incur” (Gowan).

Under natural
conditions, grazers are nature’s gardeners. The
cattle’s hooves create seed-to-soil contact and
break the soil crusts, which help dormant seeds
germinate. By eating stale growth they keep
forage plants at peak production and their guts
act like living composts piles, turning vegetation
into high-quality fertilizer (Keppel).

On the
opposing side, people think cattle trample the
land, compacting the soil so when it rains the
water runs off, takes away the topsoil, forms deep
gullies, and damages creek beds (Boyan).
It is believed that cattle dump large amounts of
bacteria into the water, harming the fish. To fix
these problems, many people are fighting to have
cattle removed from federal and public lands.

If
livestock is removed from the public lands,
America will not only erase a large portion of its
history, it will also destroy the way of life for
thousands of American families. The ranches that
were once located on millions of wide-open acres
will be turned into bustling dirty cities where
cows are replaced by cars and trees are replaced
by skyscrapers. The sky that was once blue and
the stars that were once able to shine will be
infected by a serious case of pollution and smog.
When people hear the word “America,” they will no
longer think of rolling green hills, the big red
barn, the green John Deer tractor, and cows
grazing nonchalantly under the clear blue sky.
Instead, they will think of industries, people
rushing around in their suits and ties talking on
their cell phones, and an endless sea of traffic.

There
are many solutions that can be imposed on this
issue but all take cooperation from both sides. I
believe the easiest solution would be for the
government officials to grant grazing permits to
the ranchers every year. If the ranchers do not
follow the guidelines on the permits (i.e.
overgrazing, too many cattle in a certain
allotment, allotments being grazed over the given
time period, etc.) then the government officials
have the right to fine the ranchers and/or
temporarily revoke grazing rights. Unless the
government wants to put ranchers out of business
and raise all cattle in huge feedlots where more
ecological damage is done, then the government
officials need to realize the benefits that cattle
have on the land when managed properly and
ranchers need to obey the guidelines.

According to Eric Schlosser, author of Fast
Food Nation, “The sort of hard-working
ranchers long idealized in cowboy myths are the
ones most likely to go broke today” (Schlosser
136). Until these hard-working ranchers receive
some public attention, they will truly become an
endangered species. If you do not want to lose
those American icons, the traditional western
roots, and this sacred lifestyle, ranchers and
government officials need to compromise with one
another. The battle has been long and difficult
but I believe we can work together to preserve the
land and lifestyle we all love.